The ABC Challenge
by GrimmUlquigrrrl
Summary: Here we go! A JinxMugen challenge has been taken! This is very similar to my Bleach 100 Challenges, but with SamCham instead. Not all the chapters are written, although they look like they are in the chapter count. Those are placeholder chapters, but you can tell which chapters are written by which ones are named in the selector. Thanks for reading! Rated K-T
1. Chapter 1

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	2. B: Beggar

Mugen was no beggar. He would never fall at any man's feet or kneel for any man's favor; never would he submit to another's will or sacrifice his freedom. His own strength was what carried him, what lifted him up, and anything else be damned. He was the only thing he believed in.

But that was not true.

That moment in the restaurant, the moment he first saw _him,_ had felt no different from any other, but it had bourne a new, unhealthy obsession. Laying in the cell, unable to move his body, with that man laying beside him felt almost inseparably right; finding him again after Sara's assassination attempt had brought Magen back to the fullness he'd lost when he'd lost that man. Nothing had hurt him so bad as watching that straight-backed samurai walking away with tat goze, nothing had felt to him so good as watching him walk back.

No one could know these thoughts, or how Magen had come, for the first time, to trust in someone else Every one of that man's calculated swings, every trained foot movement, every precise dodge and return, screamed of what Mugen did not have- tutelage. That proud swordsman, quiet as he was, had a talent as powerful or moreso than Mugen's own. It was not only his own strength he believed in anymore.

It was a strange blend of hatred, respect and grudging care that he felt, and he was not a man to hold such things in. But he hadn't a choice, no one could no. He was a fighter, a man alone, a wooer of women and a drinker of sake. He needed no on, he never had. He knew how to care for himself- but now, he would lay his life down for that man, such was his devotion. It drove him wild, wild with lust, with his new mix of emotions, until he couldn't hold it in and picked a fight to release his frustrations- either that or bedded another woman. He wanted to badly to tell of it, to throw himself down at Jin's feet and proclaim it, but he never would. He wanted to shriek and scream and smirk and confess, wanted to beg for the return of what he felt. But he never would.

Mugen was no beggar.

But it would be easier if he was.


	3. Chapter 3

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	4. Chapter 4

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	5. E: Endearment

Jin was as stick-up-the-ass, straight-laced, too-serious, silent pointdexter. All he ever did was look at Mugen like he was a piece of trash, but he never did anything about it. When he finally spoke, it was to tell Mugen to sit down, shut up, stop righting, eat quietly, and he had this condescending aura about him that Mugen could never seem to escape. Mugen hated the bastard.

Mugen was a loud, brash, rude, untrained hooligan. His movements were the least productive thing Jin had ever said, and he refused to learn to do anything correctly. He always contradicted what Jin said simply to make him mad. The only thing he ever wanted to do was pick a fight- usually with Jin- unless he was eating or sleeping, and he always looked at Jin like he was the most offensive man who had ever waled the ground of Japan. Jin hated the man.

Oh, they hated each other with a passion- there was no endearment between them, none. But they could grudgingly admit to some amount of respect; through Mugen's wild leaping about Jin had yet to learn to read his movements, and despite Jin's practiced swipes he had such speed that sometimes Mugen found it difficult to counter. In battle they were evenly matched, and they knew it. That was the source of their hate- and their familiarity.

The more they spent their joinery traveling side by side, the more familiar they became, and the more the hated, the more they ended. Neither one could die until the other killed him. It was an unspoken pact. Their worlds revolved around their journeys, and each other. They obsessed over would I do it? How would I kill him? Strategizing, planning, imagining, savoring- it was every moment that they weren't sleeping, eating, in a fight, or looking for Fuu (again). Their promise not to fight was the bane of their lives.

They couldn't wait for the journey to end. They hoped it never did. The limbo was beautiful.

There were moments where each felt a selfish fear on the other's behalf. Never had Jin been so frightened as wen he watched that pirate ship burst into a tower of smoke and flames, the balk water turning orange in the fireball. What if Mugen didn't make it out? Their fight would never be finished. Jin needed that closure. Mugen, as well, felt that twinge when Jin could not be found after Sara's assassination attempt. He searched through the foaming waters of the river all day long. What if Jin had drowned? Their fight would never be finished. Mugen needed that closure.

But the worry quickly passed. If there was anything they had faith in besides their own strength, it was the other's. neither on would die so easily. They had a pact. And that pact would be the end of them both.


	6. Chapter 6

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	7. Chapter 7

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	8. Chapter 8

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	9. Chapter 9

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	10. Chapter 10

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	11. Chapter 11

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	12. Chapter 12

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	13. Chapter 13

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	14. Chapter 14

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	15. Chapter 15

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	16. Chapter 16

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	17. Chapter 17

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	18. Chapter 18

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	19. S: Snowfall

Jin sat silently and at full attention, looking out from under the shack's awning where they had spent the night. Fuu glared at him.

"What is he staring at?" she pouted behind her hand to Mugen, who lounged on the ground like normal.

"The snow," Mugen replied, scratching his calf with his foot, "what else?"

"Yeah, but _why?_" Fu asked. "He's pissing me off! Why doesn't he talk to us? The snow's not that much to look at!" Mugen's eyes slid over to the figure of the sitting samurai. He knew why Jin stared at the snow; it reminded him of all the kills he had made, all the heads that had fallen as bountifully as the drifting snowflakes. Mugen thought of it too, thought of it with a fierce joy. But it wasn't the same for Jin.

No, Mugen knew it was almost the opposite. It wasn't quite regret that Jin felt- it was only his work he had done after all, and those lives meant nothing to him- but it was something similar. He understood what it meant to take a life, something Mugen would never understand.

"Wouldn't know," Mugen said, looking away.

"Well go talk to him!" Fuu demanded, grabbing the back of his shirt and dragging him over to the door. "Wait, why me?!" he shouted. "Go ask him yourself!"

"Shut up and get him to stop sulking!" Fuu cried, throwing him out of the hut. He slid, face first, across the freezing cold snow, and Jin just looked apathetically at him. Mugen growled, picking himself up and shaking the melting snow from his voluminous hair as he stalked over. He collapsed on the wooden porch in his usual louching stance, laying on the ground.

"Why are you out here?" Jin's monotonous voice asked.

"'Cuz she won't let me back in," Mugen said. "I'll just sit here." Jin nodded.

They didn't look at each other, but a moment of knowing passed between them. Jin looked at the snowfall, Mugen looked at the awning, and they understood. It as a rare thing when they were of like minds, and each appreciated it in his own way as the quiet sound of snow falling filled their ears.


	20. Chapter 20

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	21. Chapter 21

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	22. Chapter 22

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	23. Chapter 23

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	24. Chapter 24

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	25. Chapter 25

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	26. Chapter 26

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